Grid Flexibility Study

Resurgent electricity consumption growth challenges grid reliability according to NEMA-PA Consulting Grid Flexibility study:
– The electroindustry is at the forefront of a nationwide drive to improve the reliability and resilience of the power grid ahead of growing power demand from data centers, e-mobility, building electrification, and manufacturing reshoring
– After two decades of stagnant power demand growth and scant transmission and distribution additions, power gap risks are expected to rise during peak demand events

Reliability risks are rising:
– Demand growth is likely to increase twice as rapidly over the next 25 years compared to the last quarter century, …

Eco-Reliable Operation Based on Clean Environmental Condition for the Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Hubs with Heat Pump and Hydrogen, Thermal and Compressed Air Storage Systems

Energy hubs, with their diverse regeneration and storage sources, can engage concurrently in energy transfer and storage. It is anticipated that managing the energy of these hubs within energy networks could enhance economic, environmental, and technical metrics. This article explains how electrical and thermal network hubs manage their energy consumption in the context of the multi-criteria objectives of efficiency, sustainability, reliability of the network operator, and operation. The hubs have solar power, a bio-waste unit, and wind turbines among other sustainable energy sources. They have compressed air, heat, and hydrogen storage units installed. Thermal energy is produced by means of …

Turning Data Centers into Grid and Regional Assets: Considerations and Recommendations for the Federal Government, State Policymakers, and Utility Regulators

Over the last two years, America’s demand for electric power has surged thanks to the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing and the emergence of—and demand for—generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which relies on power-hungry data centers. The emergence of these two substantial new electric loads is unprecedented, and policymakers must address this dual challenge rather than viewing industrial growth and data center growth as competing priorities that require choosing one over the other.

A promising solution is to transform data centers into grid and regional assets that offer flexible demand powered by carbon-free electricity. These centers can reduce energy consumption during grid …

Demanding a Better Grid: How Demand Management Can Accelerate the Phase-Out of New York City’s Peaker Power Plants

This report highlights ways to address New York City’s growing electricity demand and accelerate peaker plant retirement through robust demand management solutions that harness the flexibility of customer devices, such as smart thermostats, heat pumps, electric vehicle chargers, solar, and battery storage, to reduce stress on the electric grid. The report includes best practices for centering equity in demand management program development, with a focus on demand response and virtual power plants, as well as establishing a regulatory framework for implementation.

While demand management cannot necessarily address the entire projected energy generation deficit New York currently faces, it is a …

How Utilities Can Ensure Energy Reliability and Affordability

The U.S. is making strides toward decarbonization by electrifying transportation, heating and cooling, and more. But the push to electrify raises several questions for utilities: Where will all the electricity needed to power the electrified future come from? How will policy and regulations impact state and federal decarbonization goals? How will grid reliability be affected, especially in regions that could face an energy shortage?

New England is a perfect case study for these questions. In looking at demand forecasts — and potential supply shortfalls due to a range of factors — ISO New England has turned to co-optimized planning of …

Four Essential Assumptions for Future-Ready Grid Modeling

Integrated resource planning (IRP) is becoming more complex due to increasing renewable energy integration, retirements of fossil fuel plants, growing customer-sited and distributed energy resources, and impacts of climate change. Traditional grid modeling assumptions, once acceptable for modeling grids supported by centralized fossil fuel plants, are becoming outdated and risk undervaluing the role of renewables, energy storage, and demand flexibility in grid planning. This creates a challenge and opportunity for utilities, which perform grid modeling in IRP, and regulators, who are tasked with evaluating utility modeling assumptions, methodologies, and outputs. As grid dynamics evolve, accurate modeling is essential for ensuring …

Solar and Storage Integration in the Southeastern United States: Economics, Reliability, and Operations

Solar energy has the potential to be a core energy resource for the southeastern United States. To better understand the implications of higher levels of solar PV (27%-43% of total generation capacity) and electricity storage (13%-49% of peak load) would affect electricity system reliability, costs, and operations in the U.S. Southeast, this study sought to address two main questions. First, how would higher levels of solar PV and electricity storage impact the costs, reliability, and operations of electricity systems in the Southeast in 2035? Second, at different levels of solar PV and electricity storage, what are the benefits of operational …

Datacenters Amplify Grid Congestion Challenges as Renewable Curtailment Rises

With renewable energy developers deploying record amounts of solar and wind capacity in the US due to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, all eyes are now turning to grid adequacy, transmission bottlenecks and rising curtailment levels.

Fast-steepening projections for datacenter energy demand — now expected to top 760.7 TWh annually by 2029, up from an estimated 371.6 TWh in 2024 — are magnifying these issues, particularly in geographies expected to experience significant datacenter IT capacity expansions, notably Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the US southeast, where relatively short mileages of transmission lines are currently planned.

Is the rising …

Developing a Three Stage Coordinated Approach to Enhance Efficiency and Reliability of Virtual Power Plants

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a centralized energy system that manages, and coordinates distributed energy resources, integrating them into a unified entity. While the physical assets may be dispersed across various locations, the VPP integrates them into a virtual unified entity capable of responding to grid demands and market signals. This paper presents a tri-level hierarchical coordinated operational framework of VPP. Firstly, an Improved Pelican Optimization Algorithm (IPOA) is introduced to optimally schedule Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) within the VPP, resulting in a significant reduction in generation costs. Comparative analysis against conventional algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and …

Assessing the Impact of Voluntary Actions on the Grid

The urgency of the climate crisis is leading many large energy consumers to consider how they can more accurately assess the impacts of various potential actions on grid decarbonization. This paper provides an overview of the ZEROgrid Impact Advisory Initiative’s collective findings on consequential impact and reliability assessments, their implications, and areas where further research is required. This consensus paper is intended for corporate practitioners and policymakers navigating policy, investment, and procurement decisions that affect grid decarbonization and reliability.…